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Witchvox - RSS Feed - New Articles This Week The latest in NeoPagan News Sacred Space Conference [Caroline Kenner] Sacred Space Conference 2010: Celebrating Twenty Years An illuminating light, a time of respectful sharing and thoughtful learning among various metaphysical traditions, spiritualities and esoteric religions: this has been the Sacred Space Conference for twenty years. With programming both broad and deep, Sacred Space is proudly eclectic and determinedly diverse. For the twentieth celebration of Sacred Space, the conference featured familiar presenters and new ones, a new site that is al March: An Awakening [CatDancing] We're probably all familiar with the old saying about March coming “in like a lion and out like a lamb”. As I sit here writing this it still remains to be seen if that will hold true for us here in the east Kentucky mountains this year, although if the long-range forecast is on track it sounds as if we'll be off to a more than chilly start! One thing can be counted on – that March will be a fickle and unpredictable month with days when freezing temperatures let us know that winter has not given About Our Practice [Priestess Jean] Each time our clergy receives a new inquiry from the public, we find that many of the same issues are raised... how is your religion different than the others? Why do you believe that the Goddess is real? What should I do to find genuine spirituality? And so, in this article I'm going to talk about our practice, and try to answer some of those very basic and very important questions. One of the most obvious things that make our religion unique is its simplicity. As our website explains, Daughters of the Witching Hill: In Search of Historical Cunning Folk [Mary Sh... In 2002, I moved to East Lancashire in northern England—the rugged Pennine landscape that borders the West Yorkshire Dales. My study window looks out on Pendle Hill, famous throughout the world as the place where George Fox received the ecstatic vision that moved him to found the Quaker religion in 1652. But Pendle Hill is also steeped in its legends of the Lancashire Witches. Everywhere you go in the surrounding countryside, you see images of witches: on buses, pub signs, road signs, an A Pagan Physician’s Perspective the Ethics of Healthcare [Dragonstorm] I was a doctor before I became a Pagan. Or maybe I should say before I KNEW I was a Pagan. In fact I grew up with a Christian upbringing. A beloved family member of mine, also a doctor, asked the question many years ago, “How can one not believe in god knowing how well-organized the human body is?”I understood this logic very keenly, having marveled at the magic that is the human body, and biology in general. But something over the years nagged at me more and more, and was a big factor i The Healing Power of Trees [Colin Bondi] I love trees, I always have. I love the natural world but for some reason trees have always had a special meaning and a special power for me. The reverence and appreciation I feel for them can be intense and lately I’ve made it a daily practice to connect and work with them. They are a great teacher for me and they demonstrate and symbolize how to live in the world with grace, groundedness, openness and connectedness. They help me move energy by connecting me with the Earth and acting as a chann On Becoming a Crone [Belladonna SilverRayne] Why is it so hard to admit we're growing older? Why do we fight it tooth and nail? Society and the media as a whole, wants to show aging as something to be fought against, to be put off as long as possible. Why? Look at any sit-com, news broadcast, music video.... it's all about being young and and quot;beautiful and quot;. Youth is made out to be the epitome of what we all want to be. Who wants to get old, right? Wrong!I will be 45 on my next birthday. A fact that, when said out loud at first, made me m In The End, We're All Solitary [Chi] I’m not bashing coven practice here – It’s a wonderful spiritual path and way of learning and it works for lots of people. Those people have my blessings and all my best wishes. There are plenty of teens that someday want to be part of a coven, and there are dozens of adults who warn against teen groups (and even several of articles on Witchvox about it) . But if solitary practice is so wonderful, I have to ask myself why no one advocates it, at least not until asked or provoked. That’s what I w Student Turned Teacher by Default [Étaín] Over the years I have had the privilege of working with many pagans and wiccans who walk all different paths and it seems that although at the beginning of my path I seemed to take to certain aspects of energy work “naturally” and therefore instead of being the student somehow my roll switched to teacher.Not that I’m objecting, I love helping people and working with people and just because I am helping someone by being a guide of sorts, I still learn a wealth of information from those wh Sinnsreachd - Gaelic Polytheistic Tribalism [Dáire] OverviewSinnsreachd is a cultural and religious movement that revives the pre-Christian religion, including cultural elements, of the Gaelic peoples of Ireland and Scotland from which it and many of its practitioners are descended. Sinnsreachd is a G and agrave;idhlig (Scots-Gaelic) word that means, in this context, and quot;Customs of the Ancestors and quot;, and is a term that truly expresses what it is that we hold dear. Our faith, our culture, our way of life all fall within the bounds of that sin Spilling the Family Magic Beans [Eiris Wyndrose] Greetings from the Land of Moss-I am on a name search. I'm on a name search because I am making my own choice about my personal spirituality, and because I was asked what archetypes I identify with on a quiz question in my media class at school. My father named me Secret but then my mother changed it to Segrid when I was 5. I wanted to keep my birth name, but the numbers do not match my birth day. I was disappointed to discover that the name my mother changed it to, does Lacking Something... [Loren] In a perfect world, we would receive, as we need. Spells would be for knowing, learning would be available for all, and what could not be taught we would learn from the Great Ones. Our desires would be filled without need for suggestion when the time was right. No one would ever be faced with a danger or a challenge they were incapable of overcoming, and no one would be foolish enough to take advantage of the fact. But this is not a perfect world. We accrue our learning on the run. One m Native American Religion [Gentle Deer Lion Tamer] What do we mean when we speak of Native American religion? Unlike Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam, it has no single founder. Unlike Judaism, it is not the ongoing story of a people with a strong sense of their own identity. Neither does it resemble Hinduism, with its ancient and all-inclusive adaptiveness. In a sense, Native American religion does not exist at all: There is no one religious expression common to the 250 distinct Native American peoples still surviving as America approac Meditation and Sweat Lodge as Affirmative Prayer [Alfred Willowhawk, BMsc, RM... Over the years I have been honored to facilitate many ceremonies in many different paths. Often, I am asked questions by true seekers and participants in these ceremonies for my reasons, and from “where” these ceremonies come. I welcome them, because I too have asked the same questions of myself in meditation and sweat lodge as affirmative prayer, and self-healing. Since the early 90's I have been practicing these and other techniques that can be traced in this country back to the indige Shamanism: A Soul-Full Living Journey [Colleen Deatsman] The golden rays of the new morning sun peek out from behind the mountaintops lending a ghostly orange glow to the thick fog on the lake. The dawn mist feels damp and chilly, but this promise of a sunny day sends whispers of warmth throughout the wilderness. The crow caws from the top bow of the mighty virgin pine as the diffuse sunbeams accentuate his black silhouette. As if signaled by the impending sunrise, the loon who has been fishing quietly twenty yards away from my canoe extends h Newsfeed display by CaRP |
Featured ArticleOf Pentagrams and WitchesThese days, a pentagram has many meanings and connotations. People often think that the pentagram is an evil sign. Many Christians, and indeed much of the Western world, associate it with Satanism and witchcraft. While it's true that Satanists do use the pentagram in their rituals, it is certainly not a Satanistic sign, nor was it even first used by Satanists. Unfortunately, few are able to differentiate between Wicca and Satanism.It was the Sumerians who first utilized the pentagram symbol. For them, however, it was merely a piece of their language rather than a religious symbol. As you read earlier, Satanists do indeed use it as a symbol, typically with two points up and three down. They refer to this as the Sigil of Baphomet, and it is used as a symbol for Leviathan. It was also the official seal of Jerusalem for awhile, showing its presence in Judaism as well In Christianity, it was used to represent the five senses. In medieval times, it was believed to represent the five wounds of Christ (2 in the wrists, 2 in the ankles and one in the side). At this point, its common use was actually to ward off demons and witches - which becomes ironic later on. It has also represented the five fingers, the five joys Mary had of Jesus, as well as the five virtues of knighthood. However, it later became thought of as an evil symbol. Pagans and Wiccans use the pentagram in their rituals, as do Satanists, albeit in completely different manners. This led Christians to believe the pentagram to be an unholy symbol of evil, something that's carried forward to today.
Lastly, we
come to Wicca and Neopaganism. The
pentagram is a very important symbol in
these religions. Many versions of the
religion use it as their holy symbol,
and wear it as
Wiccan Jewelry much like Christians
have the Cross of Jesus and Jews have
the Star of David. While not quite as
universal as these other symbols (some
branches of Neopaganism rarely, if ever,
incorporate pentagrams into their
rituals), witchcraft is one of its main
associations. As previously mentioned,
few are able to shake the thought that
witches are evil, and pentagrams add to
this. However, Wicca and Neopaganism in
general is vastly different from
Satanism. About the AuthorElizabeth Beckley writes for Moonstone Jewelry, a company which focuses its products on Wiccan Jewelry |